EPA Murray Coal Study

Ryan Koronowski filed this request with the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States of America.
Tracking #

EPA-HQ-2017-009421

EPA-HQ-2017-009421, EPA-2017-009421

EPA-HQ-2017-009421

Status
Completed

Communications

From: Ryan Koronowski

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. §552 et seq. (“FOIA”), I am requesting copies of the following agency records and other public records under your agency’s control:

(1) all correspondences, which include but are not necessarily limited to, written or electronic communications, letters, emails, attachments, phone logs, instant messages, instant communications, texts, and other documents transmitted between Administrator Scott Pruitt, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, Associate Administrator Samantha Dravis, Deputy Chief of Staff Byron Brown, Mandy Gunasekara, Denise Anderson, Layne Bangerter, Millan Hupp, and their schedulers and secretarial staff, and employees of Murray Energy Corporation, including, but not limited to Robert Murray, his schedulers and secretarial staff, other C-Level executives, government relations employees, and regulatory employees, and email addresses with the domain names @murrayenergycorp.com and @coalsource.com, on matters related to: studies related to job losses in the coal industry caused by air emission regulations

(2) all calendar files, which include but are not necessarily limited to, calendar invites, appointments, meetings, attachments, notations of conversations, meeting minutes, notations of conversation, guest lists, and other written or electronic documents of Administrator Scott Pruitt, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, Associate Administrator Samantha Dravis, Deputy Chief of Staff Byron Brown, Mandy Gunasekara, Denise Anderson, Layne Bangerter, Millan Hupp, and their schedulers and secretarial staff, related to meetings with employees of Murray Energy Corporation, including, but not limited to Robert Murray, his schedulers and secretarial staff, other C-Level executives, government relations employees, and regulatory employees, and email addresses with the domain names @murrayenergycorp.com and @coalsource.com.

(3) all other public records, created between February 1, 2017 to present, which include but are not necessarily limited to, memoranda, policy guidance, internal documents, correspondences to or from other parties besides Murray Energy, calendar invites and files, and all other types of electronic or written documents and relevant materials related to or concerning: studies related to job losses in the coal industry caused by air emission regulations

I also request that you state the specific legal and factual grounds for withholding any documents or portions of documents, should you withhold any. Please identify each document that falls within the scope of this request but is withheld from release. If requested documents are located in, or originated in, another installation or bureau, I would request that you please refer this request or any relevant portion of this request to the appropriate installation or bureau.

To the extent that the information is available in electronic format, I would prefer to receive that information via email or CD, particularly if providing the information reduces the time or expense involved. Otherwise, I will expect to receive the information in paper form.

This information is being sought on behalf of ThinkProgress.org (an online news service) for dissemination to the general public and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. I am a reporter with ThinkProgress, an online news site with a national audience seeking these documents entirely for news-gathering purposes.

Please provide the records requested above regardless of your fee waiver decision. In order to expedite a response, the ThinkProgress will, if necessary, pay fees in accordance with FOIA regulations for all or a portion of the requested records. Please contact me before doing anything that would cause the fee to exceed $50.

I also request expedited processing. Release of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the Government and the EPA, which have broad reaching impact on the health, safety, and well-being of the American public and are currently a subject of national news value. There have been numerous media reports that the current EPA’s leadership is being influenced by energy companies such as Murray Energy, a coal-mining corporation whose business activities’ environmental impacts the EPA oversees. Disclosure of this information is urgently needed to help the public understand how Murray Energy is influencing environmental public policy and whether this influence is having a deleterious impact on EPA’s mission to protect the health and safety of the public from pollution.

I look forward to your reply within 10 business days, or, at the latest, 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Thank you for your cooperation with this request. I am willing to discuss ways to make this request more manageable to your office. Please do not hesitate to contact me at the number above or on my direct line at 202-478-6333 or rkoronowski@thinkprogress.org.

Sincerely,

Ryan Koronowski

From: foia_hq@epa.gov

This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://foiaonline.regulations.gov:443/foia/action/public/view/request?objectId=090004d28142bf41)
* Tracking Number: EPA-HQ-2017-009421
* Requester Name: Ryan Koronowski
* Date Submitted: 07/14/2017
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description: Requesting documents transmitted between Administrator Scott Pruitt, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, Associate Administrator Samantha Dravis, Deputy Chief of Staff Byron Brown, Mandy Gunasekara, Denise Anderson, Layne Bangerter, Millan Hupp, and their schedulers and secretarial staff, and employees of Murray Energy Corporation, including, but not limited to Robert Murray, his schedulers and secretarial staff, other C-Level executives, government relations employees, and regulatory employees, and email addresses with the domain names @murrayenergycorp.com and @coalsource.com, on matters related to: studies related to job losses in the coal industry caused by air emission regulations, etc.

From: newton.jonathan@epa.gov

07/25/2017 07:02 PM FOIA Request: EPA-HQ-2017-009421

From: newton.jonathan@epa.gov

Your request for Expedited Processing for the FOIA request EPA-HQ-2017-009421 has been denied. Additional details for this request are as follows:
* Request Created on: 07/14/2017
* Expedited Disposition Reason: Criteria not met.
* Request Long Description: Requesting documents transmitted between Administrator Scott Pruitt, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, Associate Administrator Samantha Dravis, Deputy Chief of Staff Byron Brown, Mandy Gunasekara, Denise Anderson, Layne Bangerter, Millan Hupp, and their schedulers and secretarial staff, and employees of Murray Energy Corporation, including, but not limited to Robert Murray, his schedulers and secretarial staff, other C-Level executives, government relations employees, and regulatory employees, and email addresses with the domain names @murrayenergycorp.com and @coalsource.com, on matters related to: studies related to job losses in the coal industry caused by air emission regulations, etc.

From: Environmental Protection Agency

06/01/2018 10:54 AM FOIA Request: EPA-HQ-2017-009421

This email is about your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, EPA-HQ-2017-009421; it is assigned to the Office of the Administrator for processing.
The Office of the Administrator has experienced a significant increase in FOIA requests since the start of this administration. As of May 7, 2018, your FOIA request, EPA-HQ-2017-009421, is currently 500 in the queue. We are processing all FOIAs within the scope of our resources, given the sharp increase in requests. If possible, we will provide you with interim releases as they become available.
In fiscal year 2017, the average processing time for complex FOIA requests processed by AO was 388 working days. Using this number as instructive to estimate the time to process your request, the new estimated completion date for this FOIA is January 9, 2019.
The following are some sources of publicly available information that you can access immediately and which may contain information responsive to your request: • Our website: https://www.epa.gov/home/advanced-search
• The EPA newsroom: https://www.epa.gov/newsroom
• FOIAonline for records previously released through FOIA requests: https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/search/
• Frequently requested records: https://www.epa.gov/foia/national-online-foia-library#request
• MyProperty: https://www3.epa.gov/enviro/facts/myproperty/
• Technical/scientific/educational publications: https://www.epa.gov/nscep
• Superfund sites and data: https://www.epa.gov/foia/national-online-foia-library#superfund
• Historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017 https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/

If you wish to clarify your request, so that once we reach the request in the queue, it might be processed in a shorter amount of time, please contact Nicole Rementer, Rementer.Nicole@epa.gov. If you are no longer interested in the requested records, please let us know so that we can remove your request from the queue. Please be sure to include your tracking number, EPA-HQ-2017-009421, in the email subject to ensure a timely response.
In addition to seeking assistance from the contact above, you may seek assistance from the EPA’s FOIA Public Liaison at hq.foia@epa.gov or (202) 566-1667, or from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). OGIS’s services are described on their website, https://www.archives.gov/ogis. You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways: by mail, Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, MD 20740-6001; email: ogis@nara.gov; telephone: (202) 741-5770 or (877) 684-6448; or fax: (202) 741-5769.
Thank you,
Nicole Rementer

From: Environmental Protection Agency

The FOIA request EPA-HQ-2017-009421 has had its Tracking Number changed to EPA-2017-009421. This is normally due to the request being transferred to another agency (for example, EPA to Dept. of Commerce) or to a sub-agency to process it. Additional details for this request are as follows:

* Old Tracking Number:
EPA-HQ-2017-009421
* New Tracking Number:
EPA-2017-009421
* Requester Name:
Mr. Ryan Koronowski
* Date Submitted:
07/07/2018
* Long Description:
Requesting documents transmitted between Administrator Scott Pruitt, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, Associate Administrator Samantha Dravis, Deputy Chief of Staff Byron Brown, Mandy Gunasekara, Denise Anderson, Layne Bangerter, Millan Hupp, and their schedulers and secretarial staff, and employees of Murray Energy Corporation, including, but not limited to Robert Murray, his schedulers and secretarial staff, other C-Level executives, government relations employees, and regulatory employees, and email addresses with the domain names @murrayenergycorp.com and @coalsource.com, on matters related to: studies related to job losses in the coal industry caused by air emission regulations, etc.

From: Environmental Protection Agency

EPA-2017-009421 has been processed with the following final disposition: Partial Grant/Partial Denial.

  • Other-20200416084650-EPA-HQ-2017-009421 Closeout Letter 4.15.2020

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  • 07/25/2017

    FW.EP Ltr RKoronowski 009368,009421,009424,009426

  • 04/16/2020

    Other-20200416084650-EPA-HQ-2017-009421 Closeout Letter 4.15.2020